Thursday, August 04, 2011

As those of you who got to watch Samu's win in Burgos earlier today will have noticed, Samu wasn't the only orange-clad rider at the head of the race. Vuelta hopefuls Antón and Nieve were surprisingly strong on the last climb, to me anyway, considering their goals are still roughly three weeks away. The former was an impressive 11th at just 12 seconds, while the GT specialist that is Nieve was only two seconds further back in 12th. On the exact same stage last year, Nieve ceded 26 seconds and Antón 33 to stage-winner Samu. One could thus assume the duo is going better than last year, but then again it might just be that the race panned out differently last year and that they went up the climb at a higher pace. Anyway it's hardly a bad sign. Peio Bilbao finished up 59th at 59 seconds, while Oroz (who spent hours taking huge pulls at the front of the pack) was 66th at 1:18, Landa 79th at 1:31, Astarloza 88th at 2:29 and Isasi 94th at the same time.

As mentioned earlier, Ricardo García made the day a success for Orbea through his 10th place. Other than that though it was slim pickings for the Conti squad. Cabedo was slightly off-pace in 57th, 54 seconds down, while Zabalo, as ever aggressive early on, came home a further five seconds back. Martín was 1:24 down in 72nd, Bizkarra and Sáez 2:29 in 95th and 96th, Urain 3:20 in 104th, and Etxebarria was 115th at 4:16. After missing out on the today's main break the guys in blue will surely be in there tomorrow, so look out for some aggressive racing from the youngsters.

Over in Poland only Jon Izagirre will be pleased with his performance I reckon. The younger of the Izagirre brothers ended up 41st on the stage, 24 seconds down, and thus finished ahead of such illustrious names as Di Luca, Nibali and Capecchi. Jon might have slipped under the radar for the best part of the campaign so far but his results have been consistent and impressive, especially so considering he's in his first year with the team. Make no mistake, he'll be just as good as his so far more heralded sibling. Jorge Azanza showed his late-season form is where it should be with an opportunistic attack some five kilometres out. Obviously he didn't stay away but still it was a good try. Stage results: